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Main Idea
Contend for the gospel, not your reputation.
What would you do today if you knew this was your last day on earth?
What would you want to fill your final hours?
Today, the narrative in Acts turns to one of the seven newly-selected Deacons - Stephen.
Stephen was a man of incredible character and faith.
His name means crown or garland, and his life reflected that type of outward display of honor.
He was a man worthy of emulation.
A man who shows us a great way to live and die.
Why?
Because he was the first Christian martyr.
In this final hour, Stephen contended for the faith and left no room to doubt who Jesus was.
My prayer for us today is to live out our faith like Stephen, using every opportunity we get in this life as he did when his came to a close.
Outline
I - Stephen’s faithfulness
II - Schemes of the opposition
III - Be prepared to answer the opposition
I - Stephen’s faithfulness
We learn a few essential details about Stephen in this passage.
We already know his character partly due to his being selected as a servant leader.
He was full of faith, and the Spirit had a good reputation and demonstrated wisdom.
But now, we get additional details.
As he served the community, he was shown to be full of grace and power and able to perform signs and wonders.
Only a handful of individuals in Acts are described this way, mainly the disciples.
So, in this section of the text, Stephen showed himself to be of the same caliber as the apostles because God was working mightily through him.
He was full of:
Grace.
Grace is God’s gift of unmerited favor toward His people.
But it can also mean goodwill and charm.
It is a descriptor of your delightful demeanor to those around you.
Today, you might call that a magnetic personality, but clearly, Stephen’s character was attractive and winsome and was seen in the way he carried out the Deacon duties and in the way he preached.
And he didn’t just display it every once and a while… he was full of it!
Full of God’s favor and with the refining effect that has on the believer.
Power.
This is the same dynamis power from Acts 1:8 and the power of Pentecost.
It is God’s explosive and supernatural power that comes with the proclamation of the gospel.
It is overt and noticeable.
It cannot be contained or hidden.
This is prominent in the way he performs signs and wonders.
That is obviously not from man, but from God, and also in the way he proclaimed truth.
We saw that with Peter and the others.
There was no denying that this was supernatural and should be a verification that God’s hand was at work.
Sadly, even miraculous signs don’t guarantee faith.
Wisdom.
As Stephen spoke, no one could refute him.
The language in Greek suggests that Stephen wasn’t just having a one-off discussion but rather a debate, and these men could not stand against the Spirit’s wisdom and presence.
Stephen must have been listening to Jesus during His earthly ministry because he lived out Jesus’ exhortation found in Luke 12:8-12:
In the next few weeks, we will cover Stephen’s response to his accusers, but as a preview, one defining trait of his response was that he didn’t try to defend himself.
He simply spoke in wisdom.
His concern was not for his own defense but for the defense of the gospel.
It was Jesus’ reputation that he was concerned with, and he drew from the deep well of scriptural knowledge to defend the faith.
I think that is incredibly relevant to use today.
As we witness to others, we shouldn’t take attacks personally or concern ourselves with our reputation.
I know that is difficult because we all want to be justified but remember… our war isn’t against flesh and blood.
It is a spiritual battle; we are simply tools in God’s hand to achieve His purposes.
If we are going to be zealous and defend something, let it be the truthfulness of scripture and the good news of Jesus Christ.
You could say Stephen embodied the witness of 1 Peter 3:15, which reads:
Even though he was being wrongfully accused, that was Stephen’s posture, and I want to encourage us that it should be ours as well.
II - Schemes of the opposition
It should be no surprise that a move of God is met with opposition.
We should expect resistance when righteous people do righteous things according to the light they live in.
If those living in light produce light, those walking in darkness similarly exhibit darkness characteristics.
We saw it happen with Jesus.
We witnessed Peter & John, then the rest of the apostles, battle against the pridefulness and jealousy of the Sanhedrin.
Now, Stephen must walk in the footsteps of these great men and his Savior.
This provoked certain Jews:
Synagogue of the Freedmen.
This sounds like a secret organization straight out of National Treasure.
But, it is simply a synagogue in Jerusalem whose founders had been freed from slavery.
Slavery was common in 1st Century Rome and wasn’t tied to race.
Anyone could become enslaved and be released from it by purchasing it or working their way out.
Cyrenians.
People from Cyrene (which is in modern-day Libya).
They were in Jerusalem on Jesus’ day (Simon of Cyrene was chosen to help carry Jesus’ cross) and during Pentecost (mentioned in the list of surrounding regions in Acts 2).
There was also at least one of them - Lucius - teaching/prophesying at the Church in Antioch (Acts 13:1).
Alexandrians.
Jews from Alexandria, Egypt, who had a synagogue in Jerusalem.
Cilicia.
A region in modern-day Turkey.
It is northwest of Antioch, where Paul would visit on his missionary journeys and the same region where he was from (Tarsus being a city in the region of Cilicia).
Asia.
Meaning the Roman province of Asia, being modern-day Turkey.
These are Hellenistic Jews from the Diaspora or Dispersion, as seen from the geography: Cyrene & Alexandria being in North Africa and Cilicia and Asia being in the north.
One would think there would be a camaraderie here, but they stand in stark opposition to Stephen’s message and ministry efforts.
And, because Luke is detail-oriented, he likely mentions these places to describe precisely who opposed Stephen.
These specific synagogues and people groups were probably known and recognized by his readers and could attest to the trustworthiness of his account.
They conspired to lie
Much like the Pharisees, these groups of men wanted Stephen gone, and to do that, they had to conspire against him secretly.
It still amazes me that people use willful sin to justify their actions in defense of their religion.
That bothers me every time I see it.
In their zeal to protect the traditions, they secretly agree to spread lies to condemn another human being.
When they realized they could not stand against the wisdom of the Spirit demonstrated through Stephen, they did whatever they had to do to win.
They became underhanded and devious.
They sin so that righteousness can prevail?
How woefully backward is that?
But again, we should not be surprised because that is precisely what they did to Jesus… and so the old dog continues to do the only tricks he knows to do.
And what’s worse, they pulled other Jews into their delusion.
Not only did they meet in secret, but they instigated other men to spread false witness.
They even stirred up the elders and scribes!
Isn’t that always the case with sin?
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